ShotClock


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=Shot Clock Spelling=

Katie Palacios katie.oristian@gmail.com
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Overview
Shot Clock Spelling provides adults with a fun way to practice their spelling. The graphics and audio put the players on the basketball court where each shot counts. To make the shot, players will have to correct a set of misspelled English words. As soon as they shoot, players can pick up the next ball where there's another set of words to correct. As points are scored, players will hear the swoosh of the net and the roar of the crowd. Just one spelling mistake though, and the shot is blocked. Players correct words and shoot baskets until time runs out on the shot clock.

Instructional Objective
Players will get practice correcting common English spelling mistakes.

Learners
This game is designed for adults who have never corrected those bad spelling habits. In their daily professions and routines, they don't often find themselves writing, so it's easy to misspell words that they don't write often. These adults are not interested in the online children spelling games and activities, and need a more mature way to practice their spelling that they still find fun. The game of basketball is familiar, relevant, and fun for these learners. These spelling-challenged learners may respond more favorably to Shot Clock Spelling because:
 * It utilizes repetition and practice to break old habits
 * The game is easy to learn to play
 * It's designed for their mature age-level
 * It can be played on-the-go
 * Game play is short; no huge time commitment needed

Context of Use
Shot Clock Spelling is designed to be played by individual adults in their spare time, as a fun diversion from the real world. They will most likely be playing the game on a mobile device, but they could also be playing it from a home computer. It could also be used for junior high and high school students as a fun way to practice spelling. This game is meant to be played repetitively so that players get faster and faster at recognizing and correcting misspelled words. Learners will login with their unique profile which will indicate their spelling proficiency level and their most-commonly misspelled words. This information is used to generate sets of words or "shots" that best match the needs of the player.

Scope
Shot Clock Spelling takes less than 5 minutes to play. Each period takes 30 seconds, and there are 4 periods in the game. There are a total of 1000 words in the game, but players will not receive all 1000 words. Instead, words are chosen for players according to the spelling profile that is created for them based on a preliminary assessment.

Object of the Game
Players are playing against themselves and the other players in their division (same spelling proficiency level). Each player strives to score the most points in the time available.

Competing Products
There were several online spelling games, but none of them were designed for adults. Color schemes, graphics, and word difficulty were all aimed at elementary and middle school aged children. There were also several online basketball games for adults, but none of them that I found had an educational component to them.
 * Online Spelling Quiz site: http://www.spellingcity.com/
 * Online Spelling Game: http://www.funbrain.com/spell/index.html
 * Online Basketball Games Site: http://www.oyunlar1.com/basketballgames.asp
 * Online Basketball Game: http://www.learn4good.com/games/sports/basketball_netblazer.htm

Design Details
//Universal Elements// Basketball is a fast, sleek, addictive game. Shot Clock's design is the same. The graphics are bold, colorful, clean animations. Real basketball audio clips are used throughout the game. >
 * Game Play starts with a view from half court. There are several basketballs on the court, some are outside of the three-point line. Audio clip that plays is courtside crowd noise. ( [|Click to hear an example of the "Courtside" sound.]) Players click on the ball that they want to shoot:

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 * After selecting the ball they want to shoot, players are presented with a set of three words. The audio changes to a dribbling sound ( [|Click to here "Dribbling" sound)] If they have selected a three-point shot, the set of words is more difficult. Each set of words is a mix of correctly and incorrectly spelled words. Players must spell the incorrect words correctly, and check the box next to correctly spelled words. Players cannot take a shot until they have finished correcting the words.
 * Once a shot is possible (text or checkbox in every row) a "SHOOT" button will appear on the basketball. The player clicks the "SHOOT" button to take the shot.
 * The view changes back to the view of the entire court. At this point the player can watch the shot to see what happens. If they have not correctly spelled the words in their shot, the shot will be either blocked completely or missed. If they have answered correctly, they will make the basket. The player can watch the shot to see if it gets blocked, misses, or goes in. OR they can click on another basketball and begin working on their next shot. Regardless, an audio and video cue will be displayed (and may interrupt the player temporarily if they are working on their next shot) to indicate whether the shot is missed, blocked or goes in. After the audio and video cue is displayed, the screen returns to the in-progress shot where the player is correcting words.
 * Shot is missed or blocked. (Answer(s) incorrect.)
 * Audio cue: [|Click to hear the "Backboard" sound.]
 * Animation: Short clip of hand blocking the ball or ball hitting the backboard and missing the net.
 * Shot goes in! (Answer is correct!)
 * Audio cue: [|Click to hear "Swish" - nice spelling.]
 * Animation: Short clip of ball going through the basketball hoop.

//Specific Elements//
 * When the game begins, the player signs in or, if they are new, creates a profile. The profile consists of their current spelling level, and is used to determine what level of words will be used in the game.
 * As shown in the screen shot above, each shot will consist of three words. With the exception of three pointers, each shot will be the same level of difficulty, and is determined by the level the player assesses at in the beginning of the game. The three-pointers are more difficult, however, and consist of words that are harder to correct.
 * For some words, more context must be given. The players will have to choose if the spelling is correct for that context. If the spelling is correct for that context, the player checks the box. If the spelling is incorrect for that context, the spells out the correct version. Examples of these context-required shots are:
 * **their** here; **its** mine; **your** welcome
 * the school **principal**; **weather** or not;
 * When a word is spelled correctly, the clip of the shot going into the basket is displayed along with each of the correct spellings of the word. This reinforces the correct spelling for the learner.
 * When a word is spelled incorrectly, the clip of the shot getting blocked/missed is displayed along with the misspelled word in the shot. This way the learner knows what word they have spelled incorrectly.
 * Once a player spells the same word wrong three times in the same game, they are brought to the foul line where they are given the word and the correct spelling of the word. To earn one point, the player must type out the spelling. (The correct spelling will be visible to them as they type, but having them type it will help to break the bad habit of the incorrect spelling.)

//Technical Elements// The technical elements of this game contribute to its fast, addictive, on-the-go feel.
 * The graphics and sounds would be developed in Flash, making use of the simple animations and bold images. The game itself would be developed from the iPhone platform so that players can make use of the time they would usually spend waiting to instead brush-up on their spelling.
 * Audio (with an option to mute) would also be incorporated into the game - creating an addictive scene in which the learner actually feels like they are on the court for gameplay, easily forgetting that they are practicing their spelling.



Motivational Issues
Shot Clock incorporates several of the motivational elements that guide good game development. Design considerations were made based on factors including the two of the four elements in Keller’s ARCS Model- attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction.
 * **Relevance**: It took several attempts to find a context that would be relevant for adults that would also work with the learning objectives. Basketball is very relevant. Even for people who don't play basketball, they know that the object of the game is to score points by putting the ball through the hoop.
 * **Satisfaction:** Graphics, audio, and winning points will give the player the satisfaction of correcting misspelled words. They will also have the satisfaction of seeing their name join the "MVP" list if they've scored amongst the top players.

To increase the intrinsic motivation of Shot Clock, designers incorporated all four of Lepper and Malone's (2001) individual motivations, but focused primarily on the elements of fantasy, competition, and challenge.
 * **Fantasy:** Pick up a basketball to take a shot, and immediately roar of the crowd, the seconds counting down as the ball plunges into the net... It's a common fantasy to score the winning points during the last seconds of a basketball game. With its audio enhancements and the emphasis on the clock, Shot Clock Spelling puts the player on the court where the crowd is watching every move.
 * **Competition:** Competition is inherent in the context of basketball. Shot Clock Spelling is designed to encourage competition across players and within an individual as well. High scores will be recorded so that an individual can see his/her improvement.
 * **Challenge**: Players will have the option of taking 3-pointers, which will be combinations of more difficult spelling words, and earn them 3 points instead of 2. The program will also "remember" which words the player has most often missed, and will incorporate those words more frequently into the shots for more practice.

Design Process
This design process went through several big changes before basketball was used as a context. I knew that I wanted to design a spelling game for adults (defined scope, simplistic objectives, etc). However I was not sure how to make it different from the online spelling games for kids. An adult spelling game had to make use of an adult context. So I started brainstorming the contexts that could work. One that I thought about for a while was electrical circuitry. Perhaps a "circuit of misspelled words" that, when corrected, they would light the bulb in an electric circuit. I drew up some mockups, but suddenly realized a few things about that first context idea: Electronic circuitry got zapped. I moved onto bowling. Bowling is an easy-to-learn, simple context that is relevant for adults. Sets of words (including misspelled and correctly spelled) could be displayed on the pins, and players would have to bowl to hit (or miss?) the misspelled words. I quickly realized, though, that my learner had to type out the words as part of the game. The exercise of typing out the words would help to "undo" the bad spelling habits that they'd formed, and I didn't see how well this could work with bowling. Furthermore, bowling has a slow and heavy feel to it that didn't work with my need to have an addictive, fast game. Another gutter ball.
 * Electrical Circuitry was a complex context by itself.
 * Building words to connect a circuit didn't really make any sense.
 * It was be difficult to incorporate a speed factor into the game.

Basketball, on the other hand, is fast and addicting. No one can resist the desire to throw a ball up toward the backboard. Basketball is already somewhat linked to the context of spelling through games like "H-O-R-S-E". Furthermore, basketball is very much an adult context. So it would be "okay" if the guy sitting next to you at the DMV saw you playing a basketball game on your iPhone. Now it was on to the setup of the game.

As I thought about the instructional objectives and the context of basketball, there were several things that came to mind related to the game design of spelling for adults:
 * colors/graphics/sounds would have to contribute to (and not distract from) the mature look and feel to the game
 * words displayed with other words, as they are when we write
 * correct and incorrect words mixed up, as they are when we write
 * repeating the same words would be okay - more opportunity for learners to break the bad habits.
 * learning game play had to be quick and easy
 * game play itself had to be fun

Incorporating the competitive element with basketball was important. Players' history matters because it determines which words are included in future shots for that player. Having high scores to beat increases the motivation that players have to do better during each game. By incorporating the 3 pointers, players have an opportunity to challenge themselves with harder words.

Colors, graphics, and sounds had to be clean and sleak for this audience. Anything too fluffy or colorful will "scare" away the adult learners. So animations and audio sounds put the player on the court with the action. Likewise, the game platform had to be mobile. With these learners constantly on the move, an iPhone accessory would allow them to escape sitting on the bus, waiting for their flight, or standing in line. Instead Shot Clock Spelling puts them on the court and gives them a fun way of practicing their spelling.